The field of this invention is fishing apparatus. The never ending quest for a releasable fishing hook began well over a century ago. U.S. Pat. No. 44,368 issued to Gardiner, discloses a releasable fishing hook which includes two hook members that spring outwardly in response to a fish pulling on the closed hooks. In Gardiner a center pin slidably extends through eyes mounted on each of the hook members in order to hold the releasable hook in the closed position. There are numerous other releasable hooks which are based upon the same broad concept. U.S. Pat. No. 51,651, issued to Davis & Johnson, utilized a slidable, center pin having a curved tip which loops about releasable hook members in order to temporarily hold the hook members in a closed position. U.S. Pat. No. 69,221 of Kidder also uses a center, slidable pin that is connected by means of a clasp and eye connection to two integrally connected hook members for the purpose of spreading the hook members apart in response to pull by a fish. U.S. Pat. No. 157,480 of Perry utilizes a trigger plate to hold integrally connected hook members in a releasable, closed position. U.S. Pat. No. 243,622 of Rentz & Herzog uses a separate piece of spring wire mounted on one of two integrally connected book members to hold the hook members in a closed position by releasably extending through overlapping bent portions in the hook members. The bent portion of the hook members are described as V-shaped opposite vertical bends which are positioned in substantially the same plane such that the bent portions do not contact each other but rather overlap in the closed position to receive the spring wire holder. U.S. Pat. No. 264,256, issued to De Forest, utilizes a pin-type pivotal connection to pivot two connected hooks outwardly in response to a pull on either the fish line or by the fish. U.S. Pat. No. 373,991 of Lockhead utilizes a lock ring which is positionable in notches mounted on integrally joined hook members in order to hold the hook members in a releasable, closed position. U.S. Pat. No. 456,776, issued to Prior, utilizes a separate catch mounted on one of two integrally connected hook members to releasably hold the two hook members in a closed position. U.S. Pat. No. 575,405 , issued to Punches, discloses two integrally connected hook members formed from a single piece of wire, the hook members being interlockable to frictionally hold each other in a closed position until contacted by a fish. Finally, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,727,340 of Harris and 3,751,844 of Rossnan disclose two very recent releasable hook inventions utilizing more complicated springs arrangements to provide releasable hooks.
The large number of patents and the relative periods of development certainly indicate that, although the concept of providing a releasable fishing hook is well known, an actual, successful embodiment of such a hook has been somewhat illusive, and the trend in the recent patents has been towards more complicated arrangements for releasable hooks.